Founder - National Coalition of 100 Black Women/Presidential, Gubernatorial and Mayoral Appointee/Motivational Speaker/Executive Coach/Entrepreneur/Champion for Women

 

With wide-ranging experience in both the public and private sectors, Jewell Jackson McCabe is founder of a national women’s advocacy organization - the National Coalition of 100 Black Women; a Presidential, Gubernatorial and Mayoral appointee; a motivational speaker; a business woman with a specialization in strategic communications and executive coaching who serves as director on a variety of public and private sector boards; and a consultant to major corporations, cultural and civic institutions.

 

Ms. McCabe has been a frequent guest political analyst on programs such as the Today Show, interviewed by Katie Couric, with New York Times op-ed columnist and senior writer for The New York Times, Frank Rich and former Republican National Committee Chair, Haley Barbour, analyzing, President Bush’s State of the Union Address, 2003. Ms. McCabe is featured in Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Brian Lanker’s “I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.” Ms. McCabe was also featured with Corretta Scott King, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Rebecca Walker, and Race Gender Theory Law Professor Kimberly Crenshaw in a New York Times Sunday Magazine cover story on intergenerational leadership among African American Women.

 

In addition to being a founding member of the National Congress of Black Women, Ms. McCabe was recruited by fellow New Yorker, its Founding President, Hon. Shirley Chisholm, because her proven organizing skill, agile political acumen and vital contacts; Ms. McCabe later distinguished herself in 1993 in a historic campaign as the first female candidate with a recognized feminist ideology on the “short list of four” for the presidency of the NAACP. In 1993 becoming the first woman in 84 years seriously considered for chief executive officer of this Nations premiere Civil Rights organization - both: The Washington Post (Op-Ed “Grass-Roots Glass-Ceilings”) and the New York Times (cover story Sunday Week in Review) featured McCabe as the front runner based on McKinsey developed candidate selection point system.

 

Ms. McCabe was a participant in “The New Crisis Magazine’s” 2000 special issue roundtable of feminist’s leaders discussing W.E.B. DuBois’ progressive feminist views. Jewell Jackson McCabe was elected to the board of the Women’s Forum in 1975 under the leadership of her friend and colleague founding President Elinor Guggenheimer. As part of the campaign for New York City, the Women’s Forum joined with Jewell Jackson McCabe, President, Coalition of Black Women and Marife Hernandez, President, of the Conference of Puerto Rican Women in forming WUNY (Women United for New York) to promote unity and mutual support among the city’s female leadership.

 

Ms. McCabe is the recipient of numerous honors including the presentation of the North Side Center for Child Development’s Distinguished Service Award by the Founders, Drs. Mamie & Kenneth Clark, the noted psychologists who designed and developed the groundbreaking instrument used in “The Black-White Doll” diagnostic test - the findings were the cornerstone - the key factor in the 1954 landmark supreme court decision “Brown v. Topeka Board of Education” the case to desegregate the American Public School system.

 

Ms. McCabe was appointed by President Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council where she was the first African American member. She also served on the Holocaust Council’s congressionally mandated Committee on Conscience. Governor Mario M. Cuomo appointed Ms. McCabe to the New York State Council on Fiscal and Economic Priorities. She was later appointed Chair of the New York State’s Job Training Partnership Council, the federal employment block grant, with a $300 million dollar annual budget to train New York State’s disadvantaged. McCabe was Chair from 1983 and was a Pataki hold over thru 2005.

 

Ms. McCabe, a known activist advocate for reproductive health rights co-authored with Essence Magazines, editor-in-chief, Marcia Ann Gillespie; and endorsed by the leadership of this nations African American Women’s organizations - the “African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom” doctrine printed in The Boston Women’s Health Collective’ “Our Bodies, Ourselves”.

 

A prominent speaker-advocate Ms. McCabe delivered an address on behalf of microbicides research during the 2004 “March for Women’s Lives” rally in Washington, DC. That march followed the historic pro-choice rally on the Mall in Washington held in 1992. At that time she was asked by Billye Avery, feminist health activist and founder, of the National Black Women’s Health Project (NBWHP) to represent and speak on behalf of women of color.

 

In 1991 her recognized “voice” of African American feminist ideology was sought - Ms. McCabe delivered the defining keynote address during the national conference - a historic call to action - held by the “Center for the American Women and Politics” Eagleton Institute of Politics - in the wake of the US Supreme Court Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas sexual harassment senate confirmation turmoil; Ms McCabe’s message was a “Call for Women to Run & Win”. Other

 featured guests were both Christine Todd Whitman who went on to run against Florio for governor in 1993, defeating him by one percentage point plurality to become the first female governor in New Jersey history; and Carole Mosely-Braun who went on to run and win making history too by becoming the first African-American woman ever elected to the United States senate in 1992.

 

In 1981 Ms. McCabe was the recipient of Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL), the nationally recognized organization with state affiliates, founded in 1968 and dedicated to improving the status and lives of all women primarily through education, litigation, and legislation. She attended Bard College and is a recipient of two Honorary Doctorates from Iona and Tougaloo Colleges. Jewell Jackson McCabe distinguished herself as the first recipient of the Leadership Award presented to her by the newly formed 100 Black Men of America in the early 90’s.

 

Ms. McCabe serves on and has been a member of the following public and private sector boards: Reliance Group Holdings; the New York City Investment Fund, L.I.C. (a founding member from 1996-2001); The Wharton School of Business; Bard College; The Deloitte & Touche Diversity Advisory Board; Independent Film Makers Program (IFP); Alight.com; The United Hospital Fund; Lenox Hill Hospital; The New York City Partnership (a founding member from 1981-2001); Research America; New York City Commission on the Status of Women (1982-2002); and the New York Center for Children.

 

As President of Jewell Jackson McCabe Associates – a multi-lingual management consulting firm specializing in strategic communications, executive coaching and training – she has advised a wide range of corporations in the private and public sector. These corporations include: American Express; Time Warner; The Coca-Cola Company; Matsushita Electric Corporation of America (Panasonic); International Business Machines Corporation (IBM); Tyco International; the Council for Opportunity in Education; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc; Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; The College Board and The Council for Opportunity in Education.

 

Founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW), Jewell Jackson McCabe organized 35 States and the District of Columbia in 10 months with a membership of over 7,000 women. NCBW was established in 1981 to engage professional black women and black women dedicated to socio-economic change in a pro-active advocacy network to meet their education and career needs and to facilitate their empowerment for access and opportunity in mainstream America.

 

Ms. McCabe’s progressive leadership focused on strategic planning, institutionalization and methodology for the next generation of African American Women leaders. Her vision and fundraising for the groundbreaking Aspen Institute executive colloquy in 1986, laid the foundation for the newly created organization. The NCBW Colloquy generated significant research outcomes: a Louis Harris Poll, "A Survey of Leaders on Leadership Development and Empowerment for Black Women"; four commissioned research papers “Succession Planning: Inheriting the Legacy of Leadership”, by Paula Giddings; "From a Tiehold to a Foothold: Economic Status and Empowerment of Black Women”, by Julianne Malveaux; "Black Female Political Empowerment: A Plan for Self-Help," by Linda Faye Williams; and "A Critical Policy Issue: Meeting the Needs of Black Youth, by Lynn C. Burbridge; the focus of the three-day deliberation of America’s most accomplished African American Female corporate and public sector elite was the primary out-come, a generational plan of action entitled "Inheriting the Legacy of Leadership: A 20-Year Blueprint for Black Women."

 

Jewell Jackson McCabe’s creative concepts and tactical approach to civil rights in the context of proactive recognition of positive images of Black achievers was to feature a critical mass of diverse role models during an annual elegant awards ceremony “The Candace Awards”. This national covered print and electronic initiative profiled a set of extraordinary women to make a comprehensive civil rights statement by honoring 10 accomplished women each year and a man who demonstrated feminist principles. For a decade, Candace was a vehicle for the positive depiction of African American Women during a glamorous Black Tie evening – a premier showcase to raise the profile of Black Women. The Candace Awards was its own unique civil rights statement.

 

Jewell Jackson McCabe’s overriding objective as noted in articles from both Vogue and Fortune magazines “is to establish common ground for women of color between the public and private sectors for access and opportunity”.